M Focus on: Crisis Management By JANET PATTERSON | The Municipal
Two communities revise emergency plans If four fires and a flood in four years were not enough, add in a global pandemic, and it all could make a city want to revise its emergency action plan.
That’s exactly what motivated the city of Cloverdale, Calif., to work on an update to its 14-year-old plan, which now includes instruction about floods, fires, pandemics and other potential emergencies. “We now have a strong document that will have us prepared for looming disasters,” Cloverdale City Manager David Kelley said. He credits Cloverdale’s police Chief Jason Ferguson with embracing the project to update and “provide appropriate planning documentation to address the emergencies that are not a matter of ‘if’ but a matter of ‘when.’” The update is also part of an overall emergency planning effort for all cities in Sonoma County. The revised plan includes evacuation routes for helping residents navigate their way out of dangers present during a disaster such as a wildfire. “We probably should have had one a long time ago,” Kelley said. Although Cloverdale has a population of about 9,200 residents, he said surrounding unincorporated communities increase that number along with visitors to the area’s farms, vineyards and towering redwoods. Kelley said while there are roads passing through Cloverdale, Highway 101 is the main north-south road on which people would leave the area. Ferguson said the planning team identified evacuation routes “that are critical for traffic safety and emergency response.” By establishing six zones in the area, they assigned a primary and secondary evacuation route for each zone that could be used in an emergency. While he admits that disasters evolve quickly and routes can be blocked by fires, floods and earthquake damage, they’ve given people in the area a guide for the best ways to exit Cloverdale. The addition of these routes is a response to the need for rapid evacuation for wildfires. “We’re trying to get this in place before the fire season this year. Dubbed CloveReady, the Cloverdale Wildfire Community Evacuation Plan includes three components: awareness, preparedness and activation. The awareness piece of the campaign is designed to educate residents on what steps to take to increase their knowledge of changing conditions and the call for action by way of alerts and other media outlets, he explained.
TOP LEFT: Lincoln City, Ore., has traditionally been prepared for earthquakes and tsunamis, but it is now adapting to wildfires. (Shutterstock.com) BOTTOM LEFT: Cloverdale, Calif., has updated its 14-year-old emergency action plan to include instructions about floods, fires, pandemics and other potential emergencies. In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency in 41 counties in California. Pictured is Lake Sonoma near Cloverdale, which had a water level of 60%. (Shutterstock.com)
22 THE MUNICIPAL | SEPTEMBER 2021
